6.2 Quality Check of the data

The ISO dataproducts for those AOTs for which the OLP pipeline products have been declared scientifically validated are Quality Checked. This is to ensure that the observer does not get corrupted data. The quality check is performed at three levels.

Level 1

Here the OLP operators check the products of the processing for obvious errors like:

• Instrument failures or telemetry drops during the observation
• Absence of a spectrum
• A non-physical (i.e. negative) spectrum
• A flat spectrum (i.e. all values equal)

If an observation fails this level, it is passed to Level 2

Level 2

Here the instrument team investigates whether the previously detected level 1 failure was due to an instrument failure, or a peculiar behaviour of the instrument. If this is not the case the observation is passed to Level 3.

Level 3

Here the astronomers in the ISO team investigate whether the observation needs to be rescheduled, or that the observation will most likely fail again (for instance due to very high backgrounds, or proximity to a very bright source).